{"id":682754,"date":"2026-01-08T18:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682754\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T18:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:20:10","slug":"french-president-condemns-us-for-turning-away-from-allies-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682754\/","title":{"rendered":"French president condemns US for \u2018turning away from allies\u2019 | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The presidents of France and Germany have sharply condemned US foreign policy<\/a> under Donald Trump, saying respectively that Washington was \u201cbreaking free from international rules\u201d and the world risked turning into a \u201crobber\u2019s den\u201d.<\/p>\n

In unusually strong and apparently uncoordinated remarks, Emmanuel Macron<\/a> and Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned the postwar rules-based international order could soon disintegrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US is an established power, but one that is gradually turning away from some of its allies and breaking free from the international rules that it was until recently promoting,\u201d Macron told France\u2019s diplomatic corps at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMultilateral institutions are functioning less and less effectively,\u201d the French president said. \u201cWe are living in a world of great powers, with a real temptation to divide up the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said France \u201crejects the new colonialism and new imperialism \u2013 but also vassalage and defeatism. What we have achieved for France and in Europe<\/a> is a step in the right direction. Greater strategic autonomy, less dependence on the US and China.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments came as EU leaders \u2013 torn between the needs to defend international law and to keep the US onboard as a vital economic partner and defence ally in Ukraine and beyond \u2013 struggle to agree a coordinated response to Washington\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

While neither president said so directly, both were widely presumed to be referring to last weekend\u2019s US raid on Caracas<\/a> and capture of the Venezuelan leader<\/a>, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, and to Trump\u2019s repeatedly stated aim of taking control of Greenland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Thursday that the bloc was weighing its response if US plans to acquire Greenland materialise. \u201cThe messages we hear are extremely concerning,\u201d she said. \u201cIf this is a real threat … then what would be our response?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nato ambassadors in Brussels also held a discussion about the Arctic territory, where they reportedly agreed the alliance should strengthen Arctic security. \u201cNo drama,\u201d a senior Nato diplomat told Reuters. \u201cLots of agreement that Nato needs to accelerate its development of [a] stronger deterrence presence in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specific steps remain undecided, though some nations suggested modelling efforts on Nato\u2019s eastern flank missions, Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry, which use flexible multinational deployments and advanced tech such as drones and sensors to monitor land and sea.<\/p>\n

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, said the erosion of the world order had already reached an advanced stage. Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke\/EPA<\/p>\n

Steinmeier, speaking on Wednesday night at a symposium in Berlin to mark his 70th birthday, said global democracy was at risk. The former German foreign minister said Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine was a watershed, but subsequent US behaviour marked a second \u201cepochal rupture\u201d.<\/p>\n

There had been a \u201cbreakdown of values by our most important partner, the US, which helped build this world order\u201d, said the president, whose role is largely ceremonial. \u201cIt is about preventing the world from turning into a robber\u2019s den, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steinmeier said the erosion of the world order had already reached an advanced stage. Smaller, weaker states risked becoming \u201ccompletely defenceless\u201d, and entire regions could be treated \u201cas the property of a few great powers\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said European security policy needed to be revised as a consequence. \u201cWe must not be weak,\u201d he said, adding that Germany<\/a> could only play a role \u201cif we are taken seriously, also militarily\u201d, so this was \u201cthe goal we have to achieve\u201d.<\/p>\n

Macron in his speech also stressed the importance of safeguarding academic independence and \u201ca controlled information space, where opinions can be exchanged completely freely, but where choices are not made by the algorithms of a few\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the EU\u2019s Digital Markets Act<\/a> (DMA), which covers competition, and the Digital Services Act <\/a>(DSA) on content moderation \u2013 which the US has denounced as an attempt to \u201ccoerce\u201d its tech companies into censorship \u2013 \u201cmust be defended\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The presidents of France and Germany have sharply condemned US foreign policy under Donald Trump, saying respectively that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-682754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115860866682281368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}